CHAPTER IV
WHAT HAPPENED TO CHOPS
"Boys, boys!" cried the Professor. "You don't know how relieved I amto see you safe and sound--"
"And wet and miserable," added Stacy.
"That doesn't make any difference so long as you are safe. I fearedsomething serious might have happened to you."
"There did. Tad was knocked out and I was lost up a tree," added thefat boy eagerly. "Oh, what a fine time we're having!"
"Where is the guide?"
"We are going back to look for him, Professor," answered Butler. "Idon't know what has become of him."
"And we don't care what's become of the Jonah," scoffed Chunky. "Gotanything that looks like food in this outfit?"
"Yes. By the way, Professor, how about the stores? Have you savedany from your packs?" questioned Tad.
"I am afraid the provisions are in a sad state," answered ProfessorZepplin ruefully.
"But surely the canned stuff must be all right," urged Tad.
"Yes, but where is the canned stuff? The pack holding the cannedgoods came open and everything spilled out," Walter Perkins informedthem.
Chunky groaned.
"I see my end! Not satisfied with trying to drown me in a ragingflood, you now propose to starve me to death! But I won't be starved.I'll go out and shoot a deer. I understand they are plentiful inthis range of rocks."
"I reckon you will have to get out of Smoky Pass before you carry outany of your well-laid plans," answered Ned.
At Tad's suggestion, such stores and equipment as they had saved weretaken from the packs and spread out on the ground to dry. Most ofthe biscuit were so soaked that they were falling apart. Not asingle can of food was left, although a ham had been preserved fromthe wreck. Their extra clothing, too, had been saved from the flood,and merely needed drying to be fit for use.
"We can live on ham for a long, long time," said Tad encouragingly."Then there is the coffee which will be usable after we have dried itout. I propose that we leave all the stuff here with someone towatch it, while the rest of us go upstream to see what we can pickup, and at the same time look for Chops. I am mighty glad that wehaven't lost our tents. Professor, will you stay here while we takethe trail?"
"Yes. But you will be careful, won't you?"
"Of what?"
"That you don't get into other difficulties."
"No danger of that," answered Tad laughingly. "Everything that couldoccur already has happened, unless Stacy were to climb the side ofthe pass and fall off."
"No, thank you," objected the fat boy. "You may stir up all theexcitement you like, but no more for Stacy Brown until he is at leastdried out from the last mixup."
Tad now suggested that he and Ned go back to look for their lostproperty and their guide.
"The rest of the party will remain here," he directed. "No need foryou to go with us, but suppose we have something to eat first--hamand coffee, for instance."
"We have no matches to start a fire with," reminded Walter Perkins.
The boys looked very solemn. Chunky groaned dismally.
"I knew you fellows would find some way to my distress--to the awfulgnawing on the inside of me," he complained.
"Never mind, young men," spoke up the Professor. "Find somereasonably dry wood or bark, and I will attend to the lighting end.Fortunately my match safe is intended for just such an emergency asthis, and I do not believe we shall find any difficulty in making afire, provided you rustle the fuel."
The Pony Rider Boys gave a cheer for Professor Zepplin. The problemof finding wood, however, was almost as perplexing as had been thatof the matches. Tad immediately jumped on his pony and trotted upthe pass. He returned half an hour later, with a bundle of bark, drysticks and a few pieces of pitchpine. A roaring fire was going soonafter his arrival. The warmth from it felt good, indeed, to the wetand shivering Pony Riders.
Breakfast that morning was limited, so far as variety was concerned,though there was plenty to eat, and the ham had grown perceptiblysmaller when they finished, and not the least of this had found aresting place in the person of Stacy Brown. Stacy was quite willingto remain with Walter and the Professor.
Tad and Ned started up the pass immediately after breakfast, and onthe way up they recovered the missing ponies, except the pack animal,which must have been carried away with most of their stores. Laterin the day they discovered Billy Veal fast asleep in the sunlight ona ledge of rock, some eight feet above the channel of the creek. Howhe had succeeded in getting up there neither Tad nor Ned could imagine,nor did Billy seem to know what had happened to him. He sat up,regarding them with wide eyes, after they had called to him severaltimes. Great was their relief when they found him, but the nextproblem was how to get Billy down. This was solved by Tad'sever-ready rope. One end of this was tossed up to the guide withinstructions to pass it about a nearby sapling, tossing the free enddown to them. In this way Tad would only have to pull on one ropeafter the colored man had come down, then the rope would slip back toits owner. Shortly after that Billy was standing in the creekchannel beside them.
"Did you get wet, Chops?" asked Rector.
"Yassir, nassir."
"Did you get drowned?" asked Tad with a grin.
"Nassir, yassir, I done--"
"He doesn't know what happened to him," scoffed Ned.
"You come along with us. There's work to be done today and if youdon't do your share, I shall have something besides words for you,"threatened Butler.
They made the guide walk until they came up with his pony. Chopsgrinned broadly, delightedly, when he discovered his horse browsingcontentedly beside the stream.
"Wah-hoo-wah!" he shouted, flinging his arms above his head.
"Who would have thought him to be so near human?" cried Ned.
"Yes, there's hope for Chops yet. But we shall see," answered Butler.
It was considerably past noon when they reached their companions onthe return journey. A few of their belongings had been picked up inthe pass, but not enough to relieve their critical situation.
"Boys, I have been thinking, since you left. We shall have to find aplace where we may replenish our stores, else we shall have to goback. Guide, do you know of a store anywhere near here?" asked theProfessor.
"Yassir."
"You forgot something," laughed Tad.
"Nassir," jeered Stacy. "Chops, you're a Jonah. I've said it before,and I say it again. Why, you couldn't go to the aquarium withoutsome of the whales biting you."
"That will do, Stacy. Now, guide, where is this store that you knowabout?" urged the Professor.
"Jim Abs', sah. Ah reckon him done keep a store at Hunt's Corners,sah."
"Good for you, Chops," cheered the boys.
"How far is that from here?"
"Right smart piece, ah reckon, sah."
"How far, how far?" insisted Professor Zepplin. The Professor wasnear to losing his temper.
"Right smart, sah, right smart."
"It's hopeless," declared Butler. "The best we can do will be tofollow him. See here, Chops, shall we be able to reach there beforedark if we start out right away?"
"Yassir, nassir."
"He means no," interpreted Tad.
"I wish you'd give me the key so I could understand what he doesmean," said Ned disgustedly.
"You'd have to get the key to the whale, if you expect to understandJonah," scoffed the fat boy.
"I would suggest that we start at once," said Tad. "The outfit ispretty well dried out now. It doesn't matter so much about the tents.They will dry quickly after they have been pitched. When we come toa good camping place we will go into camp along towards night. Inthe morning we can go on and find the store. Are you sure you knowwhere it is, Billy?"
"Guyot's Peak."
"Very good, very good. You are improving, my man."
"Yassir. T'ank you, sah."
"Nassir, ah don't t'ank you, sah," mocked Stacy.
/> "Let him alone, can't you?" demanded Ned savagely.
"Yes, while he is trying to be good, help instead of discouraging him.You are enough to upset anyone," returned Tad, trying to be stern.
The camp was pitched near a spring and there in the warm lateafternoon sun a thorough drying out was given to both tents andequipment, with everyone in excellent humor. The boys even sang asthey went about their work of dressing up the camp.
Supper consisted of more ham and some excellent coffee, the latterhaving been thoroughly dried out before grinding. Chops, of course,ate his supper after the others had finished, one or another of theboys now and then tossing him a piece of food while they were eating,which Billy ordinarily swallowed whole.
The evening was spent sitting about the campfire telling stories andjoking with one another. At such times the Professor came in for ashare of jibes, all of which he took with smiling face, frequentlygiving the boys back better than they had sent.
Morning was ushered in with a brilliant sun, the birds singing allabout them and the fresh odors of foliage and flowers in the air.Even Chunky began to sing before he had finished his dressing.
"Anybody'd think you were a bird," called Rector.
"Thank you for the compliment," retorted Stacy.
"I didn't say what kind of a bird, did I?" jeered Ned.
"What kind am I?"
"You remind me of a crow. You sing like a crow. I'll wager thatChops can sing better than you."
"How about it, Chops?" called Tad.
"Yassir?"
"Can you sing?"
"Yassir."
"Nassir," added Chunky.
"Let's hear you," urged Walter.
"Yes, I guess we can stand it after all we have been through," decidedthe fat boy.
"Wha' you want me sing?" grinned Chops.
"Sing something soft and low," begged Stacy.
"No, none of those sob songs for mine," objected Ned. "Give ussomething to cheer us up. We need cheering."
"Yassir."
Chops cleared his throat and with frying pan in hand began to sing ina melodious voice:
Quit dat playin' 'possum, Ah sees dem eyelids peep! Spec's to fool yo' mammy P'tendin' you'se ersleep.
Smah'tes li'l baby dat uver drord a bref, Try ter fool he mammy, he gwine git sho'-nuff lef'. 'Possum, 'possum, 'possum mighty sly, 'Possum, 'possum, 'possum, ah sees you blink dat eye.
Bye-o, bye-o, baby, 'Possum mighty sly, Bye-o, bye-o, baby, Bye-o, bye-o-bye. M-hm-m-m-m. M-hm-hm-hm!
"Hooray!" howled the Pony Rider Boys.
"''Possum mighty sly, Bye-o, bye-o, baby bye.'"
"Go on. Sing some more," urged Tad.
"Yes, for goodness' sake do something that you really know how to do,"cried Ned Rector.
Chops began swaying his body, swinging the frying pan from side toside. Then he launched into another song that set the boys joiningin the chorus, swinging their own bodies, keeping time with thesinger.